This report presents preliminary wage and salary data from the Income Survey Development Program's 1979 survey of 9,300 households throughout the Nation. The survey was conducted monthly, February 1979 through June 1980. covering one-third of the sample each month.

The data include distributions of average weekly and hourly earnings by selected characteristics including age, sex, race, marital status, occupation, industry, number of years with current employer, number of years performing current type of work, and union membership. Comparisons of the Income Survey Development Program's weekly and hourly wage rate estimates are made with similar Current Population Survey data. New data items in this report that are not comparable to the Current Population Survey include number of years working for the current employer, number of years performing current type of work, number of days missed without pay, and reasons for days missed without pay. Estimates of wages and salary lost are presented by selected characteristics of workers. In addition, selected characteristics are shown for wage or salary workers who were without work and looking for work, or on layoff, slack work, or strike for 1 or more weeks of the 3 months preceding the survey interview.